


(bright eyes)

by dreamsoverdeath (dheiress)



Series: eyes [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Fluff, Gen, pure silliness, very happy, why is that not a tag?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-10
Updated: 2018-01-10
Packaged: 2019-03-03 02:39:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13331751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dheiress/pseuds/dreamsoverdeath
Summary: “Uncle Sev!” their boy chirps as if to emphasize his mother’s point.“No,” James says, horrified. His Lily laughs, whatever fugue meeting Snivellus created has lifted itself from her in front of Harry’s bubbling laughter and James’ aghast face.(snapshots from a world where everything good that could have happen, happened)





	(bright eyes)

 

(there’s a world that Fate does not touch, content as she is to merely watch it spin forward with curious, bright eyes—this is that world, a world out of an infinite infinity, where everyone made the right choice at the right time)

 

* * *

 

 

“Guess who I saw today?”

 

James pauses Harry mid-toss, his tyke screeching in unholy glee as he flaps his little, chubby arms out like a baby bird in flight.

 

“Uh, wasn’t it your sister?” he asks his wife (his wife! Three years and he still feels a strong surge of delight and pride and relief just being able to say those words in connection with Lily Evans _Potter_ ) who is absent mindedly brushing her long, red hair. Lils’ already in her pajamas, meaning he’ll be in charge of bathing their boy tonight (and ugh, as much as James loves Harry with his entire being, his son treats bath time as if it were a war against whoever is cleaning him. James still has the bruise on his left temple from a rubber ducky gone wild with Harry’s accidental magic).

 

“Yes,” she says just as James drops Harry back into his arms, both father and son giggling wildly.

 

“And no,” his Tigerlily continues, “I mean, it wasn’t only her.”

 

James looks at her properly, she’s usually sullen after every visit with Petunia, the uptight bit… _bitterdiddy,_ but now he sees an unfamiliar distant glaze on her usually lively eyes as she stares at the ends of her hair curling around her unmoving brush.

 

“Well, who was it, darling?” he asks, moving to her side and curving the arm not currently occupied by their son around her slight frame, “the way you talk, you’ll make me think you met Grindelwald today.”

 

She chuckles half-heartedly, “Severus Snape.”

 

Leaning back, he raises his eyebrows at her, “Snivellus? He’s the one who got your knickers in a twist?”

 

He means this metaphorically, of course. If anyone, most specially Greasy Snivellus, gets near his darling’s knickers literally, James would _bombarda_ _maxima_ their face in—hm, the point is, well, what James murmurs to his wife is this, “you should have just ignored him.”

 

“I was planning to, you know,” she sighs, “Harry and I went to Flourish and Blotts after visiting Tuny and her family. We literally bumped into him on our way out. I would’ve just apologize and carry on my way but Harry reached out to him, you see. Held on Severus’ sleeves and laughed at him brightly.”

 

James gives his one-year-old son an unbelieving look, “whatever did you do that for, prongslet? You could have gotten cooties from that smelly bat—”

 

“James,” Lils chides, although she was half-smiling as she do so.

 

“I invited him to tea, the most awkward tea I ever had,” she continues, licking her lips. James kisses her, once, twice, then thrice just because he can. His flower softly bats him away with a laugh.

 

“Apparently, he runs a small apothecary in Diagon Alley these days…I’m thinking of getting my potion supplies for this semester from him.”

 

“Are you sure he’s working in Diagon Alley and not in Knockturn Alley?”

 

His wife simply shakes her head at him with an exasperated sigh before continuing on, “you know, it was so stilted—our conversation. But, it was because of those awkward words we exchanged that I realized…I’ve been missing my best friend all these years.”

 

James snorts, unintentionally making Harry gurgle like Padfoot.

 

“He was,” she asserts, mistaking his general dislike for Snivellus for disbelief, “he was my best friend.”

 

Of course, James knows that. It is rather petty to think of now, but he like to think he has grown enough of an adult to admit that the main reason why he hated Snape in school is because of the other boy’s closeness to her. Merlin, the time that the two had fought and finally separated, James alternated between literally dancing the twist and hexing Snape for the hurt the dumb git caused her.

 

 “Come on, Lils,” he says as he bounces Harry in his arms, “Best friend or not, you remember what the dumb git said to you.”

 

“I know,” she says, fingers lightly brushing Harry’s forehead, or rather, the strange birthmark on their son’s forehead. His wife says it looks like a rune—Sowilo for protection—but frankly, it looks more like a lightning bolt to James.

 

“I know,” she repeats, “but we were children then. I think it’s past time we forgive,” here she shoots a significant look at him, “and ask for forgiveness for the childish insults that were said.”  He ignores said look in favor of blowing a raspberry at their son.

 

“So, I’ve decided I’ll try to mend whatever I can of our friendship—”

 

James makes a rather rude questioning and disagreeing sound to this plan of hers but his wife plows on.

 

“If not for the past’s sake then at least for Harry,” Lils continues, smiling cheerfully in a way that made James instantly suspicious, “Harry _likes_ Uncle Severus, right my little stag?”

 

“Uncle Sev!” their boy chirps as if to emphasize his mother’s point.

 

“ _No_ ,” James says, horrified. His Lily laughs, whatever fugue meeting Snivellus created has lifted itself from her in front of Harry’s bubbling laughter and James’ aghast face.

 

“He sat obediently at Severus’ lap the whole time we were talking, fascinated. I think Sev actually smiled at him. You want to see Uncle Sev again, don’t you, darling?”

 

“Uncle Sev! Uncle Sev!” Harry repeats to drive the point home.

 

James gives his son a betrayed look, “you little traitor.”

 

Harry giggles harder.

 

He clutches his son to his chest and runs towards the bathroom. Harry shrieks when he sees the familiar door, trying to scramble out of James’ arms. “Oh no, you don’t, young man,” he says to his prongslet, laughing, “little traitors are to be given baths until Snivellus’ greasy smell comes off them!”

 

To his wife, he shouts, “I’ll tell this to Padfoot! No son of mine shall call Snivellus ‘Uncle’! _No! I refuse_! It shan’t happen!”

 

James may have grown an adult enough to admit (reluctantly) that bullying Snape in school had been petty and ultimately wrong but it doesn’t mean he actually _likes_ the man now. Nope, not even a mile near to that.

 

“Pafoo?” Harry asks, looking around James’ shoulder as if expecting his godfather to be standing there. Sirius has never ever given him a bath and in fact supports Harry in little his war against bath times by never ever giving him a bath when it’s his turn to babysit (which is why he has been recently banned). Sadly, James is expected to side with Lily on this war, meaning there shall be no cancellations on any scheduled bath so he shoots a swift _accio_ for Harry’s sleepwear and opens their bathroom door.

 

“Yes, Harry, Padfoot!” James exclaims loudly, kissing the sweaty forehead of his son, “I’ll call Padfoot! And Moony! And Wormtail! They’ll all be appalled, Lily! Appalled! Merlin’s beard, Harry calling Greasy Snivellus _uncle_ —”

 

“Uncle Sev!” Harry vehemently protests as James slowly lowers him into the tub full of water summoned by a silent _aguamenti_ and instantaneously warmed by wandless heating charms. Harry splashes James with his summoned warm water.

 

“ _Moony!”_ James remembers. He yells at the general direction of his wife, “He’ll be substituting for Professor Riddle’s Defense this year! I’ll have him has cast an anti-Snivellus ward against Harry, Lily! Don’t think I won’t! That slimy snake-bat won’t be getting near my little prongslet—!”

 

_“_ Moony! _”_ Harry shrills as he ducks away from James’ scrubbing hands, “Uncle Sev!”  The bath water ripples in angry indignation and the yellow rubber ducky on their topmost shelf quacks aggressively at James.

 

Somewhere behind them, his Tigerlily laughs, a sound as warm as their hearth and as sweet as brooking water.

 

 

* * *

 

 

( _this_ is what could have been of James and Lily Potter’s life together and, in this world, it is the only truth that happened one Halloween night at the Potter’s)

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by [this post](http://dheiress88.tumblr.com/post/168425022982/mistledoe-th1syearsgirl-suspiciousnargles)


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